Query Properties
These properties appear in the Properties window when you have a query open in Query and View Designer. Unless otherwise noted, you can edit these properties in the Properties window.
Note
The properties in this topic are ordered by category rather than alphabet.
Note
Your computer might show different names or locations for some of the Visual Studio user interface elements in the following instructions. The Visual Studio edition that you have and the settings that you use determine these elements. For more information, see Visual Studio Settings.
Identity Category
Expands to show the Name property.Name
Shows the name of the current query. You cannot change the query name in this box. To assign a new name, choose Save As from the File menu.Database Name
Shows the name of the data source of the selected table.Server
Shows the name of the server for the data source.Query Designer Category
Expands to show the remaining properties.Destination table
Specifies the name of the table into which you are inserting data. This list appears if you are creating an Insert query or Make Table query. For an Insert query, select a table name from the list.For a Make Table query, type the name of the new table. To create a destination table in another data source, specify a fully qualified table name, including the name of the target data source, the owner (if required), and the name of the table.
Note
Query Designer does not check whether the name is already in use or whether you have permission to create the table.
DISTINCT values
Specifies that the query will filter out duplicates in the result set. This option is useful when you are using only some of the columns from the table or tables and those columns might contain duplicate values, or when the process of joining two or more tables produces duplicate rows in the result set. Choosing this option is equivalent to inserting the word DISTINCT into the statement in the SQL pane.GROUP BY extension
Specifies that additional options for queries based on aggregate queries are available. (Applies only Microsoft SQL Server.)Output all columns
Specifies that all columns from all tables in the current query will be in the result set. Choosing this option is equivalent to specifying an asterisk (*) in place of individual column names after the SELECT keyword in the SQL statement.Query Parameter List
Shows query parameters. To edit the parameters click the property and then click the ellipses (…) to the right of the property. (Applies only to generic OLE DB.)SQL Comment
Shows a description of the SQL statements. To see the entire description, or to edit it, click the description and then click the ellipses (…) to the right of the property. Your comments might include information such as who uses the query and when they use it. (Applies only to SQL Server 7.0 or later databases.)Top Specification Category
Expands to show properties for the. Top, Percent, Expression, and With Ties properties.Top
Specifies that the query will include a TOP clause, which returns only the first n rows or first n percentage of rows in the result set. The default is that the query returns the first 10 rows in the result set.Use this box to change the number of rows to return or to specify a different percentage. (Applies only to SQL Server 7.0 or higher.)
Expression
Specifies the number or percent of rows that the query will return. If you set Percent to Yes, this number will dictate the percentage of rows the query will return, while if you set Percent to No it will represent the number of rows to return. (Applies only to SQL Server 7.0 or higher.)Percent
Specifies that the query will return only the first n percentage of rows in the result set. (Applies only to SQL Server 7.0 or higher.)With Ties
Specifies that the view will include a WITH TIES clause. WITH TIES is useful if a view includes an ORDER BY clause and a TOP clause based on percentage. If this option is set, and if the percentage cutoff falls in the middle of a set of rows with identical values in the ORDER BY clause, the view is extended to include all such rows. (Applies only to SQL Server 7.0 or higher.)